This invention relates to an apparatus for automatically discharging article used for money-exchanging machines, automatic article vending machines or the like.
Large-sized money-changing machines, for example, installed in banks and the like, as a rule, incorporate therein an apparatus for automatically discharging packaged coins. In a known automatic money-exchanging machine, there are set a plurality of vertical containers which contain therein a number of packages of coins and are arranged in a side-by-side alignment. The bottom opening of each container is covered by a door which is normally locked in its closed position for holding the packages of coins within the container. At the time of discharging articles, the doors are unlocked by means of motor driven unlocking members which are moved in a horizontal direction to come into contact with the doors to unlock them thereby to permit the articles to get out of the containers. In such a conventional mechanism, however, there is an inconvenience that, after the door for the last container in the arrangement has been unlocked, it is necessary to reverse the motor in order to return the unlocking members back to their original positions.